By Dan Ambrose: The proposed date for the HBO pay-per-view fight between IBF/WBA/WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev (29-0-1, 26 KOs) and Andre Ward (28-0, 15 KOs) is November 19. However, Ward will need to win his next fight against unbeaten Sullivan Barrera (17-0, 12 KOs) on March 26 at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California.
Kovalev doesn’t have a fight scheduled yet after his second win over Jean Pascal last January. Kovalev will need to fight again unless he wants to wait for Ward’s fight against Barrera to get done next month and go straight into that fight.
Ward is going by the impression that he his fight against Barrera will be his first fight of his three-fight contract with HBO rather than his second fight.